As you may already know, Into The Outdoors’ mission is to empower all youth, families, and teachers to make informed decisions by offering free educational content that inspires present and future generations to become social advocates and environmental stewards. For over twenty years, ITO has shared countless stories and perspectives by collaborating with subject matter experts to curate informative and inspiring messages that promote a positive appreciation for each other and our shared planet.

To promote and inspire social advocacy for individuals with disabilities, ITO is partnering with Achieve Tahoe and Adaptive Adventures to launch the Adaptive Recreation Education Initiative. If you are an organization or individual that believes everyone deserves to have access to nature, we encourage you to continue reading to learn how you can be a part of shaping the future culture of recreational inclusion.

The Adaptive Recreation Education Initiative originally launched to simply educate and inspire our communities about the available adaptive recreation programs and technologies in use today. However, as we collaboratively developed the initial content, a deeper message emerged through literary research and hundreds of conversations with DEI organizations and individuals affected by disabilities. The deeper message–the fundamental hurdle for individuals with disabilities to personally adopt a confident, no-limitations mindset is the surrounding culture of our collective apprehension towards the recreational “risk-taking” of adaptive adventurers.

The initiative’s project aims to educate and inform viewers about these pivotal cultural issues and available adaptive recreation resources by creating educational/informational media content and distributing the content across ITO’s entire educational network. The network will effectively reach communities throughout the nation through broadcast and public television, streaming services, and digital lesson content.


1) The first goal of the project is to address and mitigate this cultural phenomenon that creates recreational exclusion for individuals with disabilities. Specifically, we will interview impacted individuals and organizations who can authentically express how the interpersonal misgivings from peers, guardians, and educators evolve to create debilitating personal limitations and self-doubt.

2) The second goal is to inspire underserved individuals by informing them about the exhilaration, enrichment, and empowerment discovered through outdoor recreational activities. Furthermore, we will educate all individuals about the availability of adaptive service organizations and technologies that help people with disabilities deepen their relationship with nature and gain deserved, recreational access. To do so, we will showcase model examples of adventurers, activities, programs, and technologies by sharing the perspectives of inspirational individuals and adaptive recreation organizations.

3) The third goal is to inform everyone about why and how to be involved in outdoor inclusion causes: volunteering, donating, working with/as an adaptive recreation organization, and the simplest way to be involved, being a social advocate for outdoor inclusion. Our third goal and message will resonate throughout the episodes as we interview social inclusive advocates and explore and discover adaptive recreational services and technologies across the country.

Skiing…biking… paddling… hiking… the list of activities has no foreseeable end. The adaptive activities are the center showpiece as dozens of individuals and organizations thread the action by sharing their unique, yet connected perspectives to explain how they cultivate personal confidence and independence through outdoor recreation. By sharing stories from different perspectives, inspirational individuals, adaptive recreation organizations, and funding organizations, the underlying messages will remain cohesive, consistent, and gain cumulative credibility.

As we entertain and educate our audience with thought-provoking interviews, exhilarating action sequences, and philosophical perspectives, we will also focus to creatively intertwine the curriculum standards of STEAM as educational components to engage multiple learning styles and interests in the classroom.

As organizations valiantly serve the underserved, they are socially appointed, by default, to tactfully reframe perceptions of self-doubt, parental apprehension, and peer-delivered misgivings caused by our own misinformed, societal constructs. The easiest way to get involved is to reach out to us and give a nod of approval of our initiative which aims to elevate adaptive recreation by sharing educational ownership to inform our society about these misgivings.

By cultivating an informed and motivational culture together, we will foster an environment where adaptive recreation programs and services can be more efficient and effective as they share precious time to focus on what they do best– instructing, guiding, and sharing the stoke. Get involved by helping us spread this nearly-unheard, social message by sharing your story and perspective on or off the film.

We envision a day where individuals who adapt to get outdoors live in a supportive, inclusive culture, surrounded by recreational encouragement instead of apprehension. Help us achieve that day by getting involved to spread awareness of this message, initiative, and project– if you know of an individual or organization who shares our beliefs and determination to promote a more inclusive culture, please let them know we want to hear their perspective too.
Together we can authentically and holistically share these pivotal perspectives and messages with a seemingly boundless audience that will fundamentally reframe the social perception of adaptive recreation and elevate the future of outdoor inclusion.

Take care, but don’t forget to dare,

–The Adaptive Recreation Education Coalition